There’s a note next to this verse in my favorite Bible. The word hope is circled, and a line is drawn to these words: “Expectation in Hebrew.”

Expectation.

The word “hope” means “expectation” in Hebrew.

The NIV translates it a little differently: “My expectation comes from Him.”

My hope, my expectation is from Him?

Shouldn’t it be “my expectation is in Him”?

It’s early morning, I’m drinking my coffee and shaking my head.

I have a problem with expectation. I put expectations in people who cannot meet them, people who ARE NOT GOD. Because of this, I am constantly disappointed. Then, I’m praying the same prayer, Lord, please fill my disappointment. Please help me to look to You instead of them.

But this morning as I read Psalm 62 and Beth Moore’s beautiful commentary on it in Whispers of Hope: 10 Weeks of Devotional Prayer, I stuck on this idea that God built this expectation into me. It’s supposed to be there: this hole of expectation. And I am supposed to be desperate to fill it.

I just have to fill it with the right thing, instead of all of these other things that won’t satisfy. But I keep trying to fill it with all of these other things, like feeding my physical hunger with motor oil or stuffing cheeseburgers into our SUV’s gas tank. I’ll just get sick, and the car will not run.

I will never be fully satisfied until I turn to Him to fill this expectation, this appetite for Him, that He’s designed me with.

Beth Moore says it so beautifully, “GOD ALONE–the next time someone disappoints you, whisper those two words to yourself. If you agree to let that person off the hook and allow only God to grasp the other end of the rope, two things will happen: you’ll attach yourself to Someone strong enough to hold you up; you’ll be secure enough to let one arm go free to help the one who disappointed you back to his or her feet” (Day Fifty-Nine).

I don’t know about you, but I want both those things: to be be securely fastened into the Creator of my Expectation and filled up by Him, and to let other people off the hook for not being God. Lord knows I’m not God either.

So, Lord, this morning: please fill me. Please teach me to turn toward you when I need, when I hunger, when I’m expecting. Please teach me to whisper, “GOD ALONE,” and live a life of dependence based solely on those words.